In many industrial sectors it is necessary to transform reels of web material of one size into spools of a different size, by means of a process of unwinding parent reels, or so-called jumbo reels, and rewinding them into spools with different size characteristics. In certain cases the web material from a single parent reel is unwound and divided into longitudinal strips, each of which is wound onto a helically wound spool. The finished spools obtained in this way are used as semi-finished products to feed production lines for other articles.
Machines that produce spools of helically wound web material from parent reels are sometimes called spooling machines. The web material can be a non-woven fabric, for example. The helically wound spools thus obtained are used to feed machines for the production of sanitary towels, diapers and other hygienic and sanitary articles, for example. The web material wound on the parent reels sometimes has a transversal size (corresponding to the axial dimension of the parent reel) that is 5-15 times the width of the individual longitudinal strips that are obtained by longitudinal cutting of the web material from the parent reels. The individual strips are fed simultaneously to helical winding stations, in each of which a helically wound spool is formed. The winding stations are arranged in line one after the other in a machine direction, defined by the direction of advance of the longitudinal strips obtained by cutting the material from the parent reels. Each strip is fed to the respective winding station along a feed path.
The path that each longitudinal strip follows from the cutting station to the respective winding station may be very long, even several meters in length. For proper guidance of the longitudinal strips of web material, a guide member, typically an arm supporting a guide roller, is provided in each winding station. This is positioned by the operator in such a way as to be approximately aligned with the blade in the cutting station that generates the respective longitudinal strip.
Due to the considerable length of the feed path for each longitudinal strip, this alignment is a long and complex operation, which requires the intervention of experienced personnel.
There is thus a need to improve the spooling machines of the type described above to obtain easier and more precise alignment of the web material longitudinal strip guide systems.